Halo: Counter-Assault
Weapons UNSC * Assault Rifle: The MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System is considered the bread and butter of the UNSCDF's arsenal. It's fully automatic with a medium rate of fire (600 rpm) and a moderate bloom expansion rate, and is also pretty accurate when fired in short controlled bursts. Its accuracy and its hitscan nature makes it useful for up to mid range, but this requires the pacing of your shots. It also comes equipped with an underbarrel grenade launcher attachment, that allows you to fire grenades with extra range and speed, but you cannot cook the grenades like you can when throwing them normally. Overall, its a good jack of all trades weapon for close to mid range players, and an excellent starting weapon for newbies. * '''Battle Rifle: '''The Battle Rifle is another weapon that's highly regarded as a symbol of the UNSCDF. This weapon fires in precise, hitscan, three round bursts within a tight spread, and has a pretty good damage profile, being able to kill a fully-powered SPARTAN=IV with only four bursts, bleeding through the shields with its last shot. The weapon has less range than other utility rifles, so it's a much better choice for players who like to rush in and get into the face of the action, but still be able to defend themselves well at a good distance. The weapon also exhibits some vertical recoil, although you only really notice this when zoomed in. Overall, despite its shortcomings, it has the fastest kill time of all weapons in its class (sans Light Rifle, but that's only when zoomed in, limiting it to long range only). * '''Marksman Rifle: '''Better known as the DMR, this weapon is pretty much a hybrid between a conventional service rifle and a full-on sniper. The weapon is primarily known for its laser-like accuracy, hitscan nature, and semi-automatic firing mode, a combination that makes it a complete beast when used in a large-scale battlefield. The weapon's main downside is its reticule bloom, which causes the weapon to be less accurate the faster you keep pulling the trigger. To maintain its highest accuracy, you need to have patience and timing, and also learn to pace your shots. However, once you master this technique, this weapon can be a demigod in an open field, with accuracy akin to a sniper rifle and 3x zoom. It may have a slower kill time than other precision rifles, but it has the also longest range. * '''Silenced Sniper RIfle: '''The Sniper Rifle is a weapon mainly designed for reconnaissance, stealth, and well, sniping. In addition to its one-shot-kill potential, he weapon has the highest accuracy of any weapon in the game, serving as its greatest strength and making it one of the absolute best options for solely long range players. Additionally, the weapon is silenced, so it will allow you to hide your presence from the enemy as you take them down one-by-one, although your shots will leave behind a noticeable smoke trail, and while its hard to see, you must be prepared if one of the hostiles happens to have a keen eye. The weapon's main downsides is the fact that you cannot fire from the hip (a balancing method so it doesn't ever overpower at close range), and it also has a pretty slow rate of fire. * '''Shotgun: '''The Shotgun is a pump-action weapon that makes use of buckshot shells. The weapon fires a powerful ring-shaped spread of twelve hitscan pellets, devastating at close quarters, although it does have limited range and a somewhat slow rate of fire. It is well known to be a complete beast within indoor environments, especially tight corridors. The best strategy here is to have good positioning to engage your targets. Always plan around your enemy's movements and find the perfect opportunity to ambush them. Try not to always be super aggressive, and be sure to hold back until your enemy is in range. The weapon has a unique reloading mechanism in that it reloads its shells indvidually, meaning you can cancel the reload process at any time and blast off a shot if you're in any imminent danger. * '''Railgun: '''The Railgun is an anti-infantry explosive weapon utilized by UNSC infantry. This mid-ranged power weapon functions by using an electromagnetic charge to send out a powerful, fast-moving projectile in a linear path. Although it does have minor splash damage, the main advantage of the weapon is its high damage on direct hit, meaning you'll need some good aim to master this beast, but once you do, its satisfying as all hell. Before firing the weapon, the user must hold down the trigger and undergo a brief charge-up process, although you can let go of the trigger a bit early for an early shot. During the charging sequence, you must have the proper prediction skills and reaction times to keep your reticule on target, and when its over, BOOM. It puts a serious dent into enemy infantry. * '''Smart Missile: '''This game's incarnation of the Rocket Launcher. This weapon fires off a remote-controlled, high-explosive missile that is able to be steered around by the user mid-flight. Although it won't necessarily turn on a dime (its a little difficult to curve around corners), this feature allows a user to correct his aim after firing, allowing him an easier time to make the shot. However, the weapon's overall damage is not as great as the oldschool Rocket Launcher, and you're usually going to need to make two shots in order to kill a fully-shielded Spartan. However, it's a VERY lethal weapon in the hands of a skilled user. Additionally, unlike previous Rocket Launchers, the Smart Missile allows you to Rocket Jump, initiated by jumping and firing a Rocket afterward with the right timing. Covenant * '''Storm Rifle: '''The Covenant's answer to the UNSC's Assault Rifle. This weapon is fully automatic with a medium rate of fire (600rpm) and sends out a continuous stream of fast-moving energy bursts with pinpoint accuracy. Overall it serves as a great, longer range alternative to the other automatics. However, this weapon is not hitscan-based, rather it uses projectiles at a swift velocity; this means you will have to lead ahead of your targets around mid range. Also, the weapon tends to overheat pretty quickly, but on the upside however, if you choose to put the weapon away after it overheats, it will continue to cool down even when it's unequipped, which proves to be an advantage over conventional reloading. * '''Carbine: '''The Carbine is a semi-automatic weapon, serving as the Sangheili's primary choice for mid-to-long range encounters.. Although it also has the lowest damage per shot of its class, the weapon also has an extremely fast rate of fire, essentially firing as fast as you can pull the trigger. This is the weapon's primary strength and more than makes up for any deficiency in raw power, and combined with its fast reload time, you can easily overwhelm the enemy with sheer firepower. Its level of accuracy lies between that of the Battle Rifle and the Marksman Rifle, making it a good candidate for usage at any range, although this makes it a somewhat less specialized than the two aforementioned rifles. Overall, this is a very popular weapon on the battlefield, so don't knock it till you try it. * '''Energy Sword: '''The Energy Sword is pretty much the Halo version of the Star Wars Lightsaber, and functions as a close quarters melee weapon. Unlike the Shotgun and Scattershot, when you are shot while sprinting, you will not get slowed down while wielding this weapon, allowing have a much easier time charging an enemy's position, instead of having to play more defensively. Additionally, the weapon is pretty much invisible until you activate it by pulling it out, due to the blade deactivating when not in use, so you can use it to catch enemies off guard and gain an easy kill. Being a melee weapon though, the main downside is that although you can lunge toward an enemy, you have to be right up close in order to score the kill. Overall, its a good choice that's easily able to rival the other CQC weapons. * '''Beam Rifle: '''The Beam Rifle is an energy-based sniper rifle, primarily utilized by Kig-Yar snipers. Although its accuracy isn't as extremely high as the conventional Sniper Rifle, it does maintain the ability to fire from the hip, allowing you to send out no-scope headshots if you're a skilled player. Being a plasma weapon, its also based on an overheat/cooldown system, so as long as you pace your shots, you'll never have to worry about being unable to fire, although it overheats in three shots if you fire as fast as possible. The weapon's overall greatest strength has to be that it uses a thermal scope that can read heat signatures through walls, which is very handy in addition to its ability to penetrate very thin surfaces (mostly windows, although there are some exceptions to the rule). Promethean * '''Suppressor: '''The Suppressor is the standard Promethean automatic weapon. It's basically designed around the spray n' pray mentality and is used like an SMG. The weapon's most notable distinction is that it has an accelerating rate of fire, meaning its firing speed will ramp up the longer you hold down the trigger. Its firing rate starts out a bit mediocre, but after a brief period, it will eventually crank up to extreme levels, spraying out a wall of hardlight like it's nobody's business. The weapon also has a very wide spread, which may limit its range, but it makes it a very good weapon for ambushing and completely blind-firing a target with sheer firepower. It also has a pretty hefty magazine size of 60 hardlight rounds, with a swift reload time. However, the weapon's range is limited to very close quarters. * '''Light Rifle: '''The Light Rifle is a select-fire, long-range, utility rifle that's standard issue to the mass majority of Promethean Knights. Unlike the other weapons of its class, including the BR, DMR, and Carbine, this weapon is solely projectile-based, meaning you'll have to lead ahead of your targets in order to reach your massive combat potential. The weapon has two different firing modes; when you're shooting from the hip, it'll fire in three round bursts within medium spread, and when you're zoomed in, you'll be sending out more precise, concentrated single shots. The weapon is overall much more powerful with its zoomed-in firing mode, and isn't as useful at close ranges when firing from the hip, leading it to be classified as more of a long range weapon. * '''Scattershot: '''A hardlight-based weapon that's analogous to the UNSC shotgun, using five separate energy emitters to produce a buckshot effect. The weapon has a longer overall effective range compared to the Shotgun, so you don't have to get into your enemies faces to deal out some damage, but its one-shot range is much shorter due to the weapon's spread, so its a matter of range versus raw power. Its primary two distinctions are its faster rate of fire, and the fact that its energy projectiles ricochet off of walls, in a similar manner to the Flak Cannon of the Unreal series. This feature allows you to hold off a checkpoint from around a corner. Like the Shotgun, it reloads its rounds one at a time, allowing you to immediately cancel the reloading process and save yourself in a tight situation. * '''Incineration Cannon: '''The most powerful weapon in a game, this guy sends out a devastating ball of corrosive magma, also creating a wide and devastating flame shockwave at the point of impact, thats enough to clear out an entire room. The weapon uses a charging mechanic that builds up power the longer you hold down the trigger. A lower-powered shot from the Incineration Cannon will only be enough to down the shields of your enemy, but at its maximum charge, its probably the most destructive tool in your arsenal. Although the projectile itself moves slowly and is hard to dodge, the overall splash damage and wide blast radius is the weapon's primary strength. If this weapon is on the map, stay alert and be sure to run for cover when its in the hands of your enemy.